Chapter Twenty #2
“What does the market have to do with this?”
“Because you will be able to find someone that is on the line ready to be bought through an auction…You’ve been in the Underground for way too long, nephew…
This here, especially in the deep south?
This here above ground, is a different ballpark, baby.
This is the real world and some of these humans get dark… ”
I took another pull on my cigarette just as the cat finally walked up and sat before Raven saying absolutely nothing. Not a purr or meow but Raven suddenly threw her hands on her hips.
“She WHAT?!” She blurted out. “Well, did you try and bring the girls here first?!”
The cat just sat there like a stuffed animal, and she was the child with the imaginary friend that always dragged the toy with her wherever she went.
“Chile…Felix…You’ve gone soft over the years honey,” she sighed. “Them girls shoulda been right here and you led them straight into danger! Who were they with?”
“What is he saying?” I asked as Himora stepped outside. I avoided eye contact with a shift back towards the cat as the three of us stared at the mute feline.
“Uh huh,” Raven nodded before shaking her head. “Mmmmph…Anansi over here playing tricks. I knew it had something to do with a damn God or some damn spirit lingering around her. They like her type.”
“What?” I let out, confused. Raven sighed as her ponytails whipped around like wings when she stared up at Himora.
“So the girls disappeared behind another door. They were on the train tracks, and they were supposed to be taken to me if he couldn’t get a hold of Namir but the fool!” Lashing out towards Felix who simply stared. “Tried to take em to Namir anyway–––”
“Your cat is not speaking,” Himora stated the obvious. “Cats that have the ability to speak usually do. Yours does not.”
“Baby, it’s between me and him. Don’t knock what you can’t see.”
Himora looked pointedly at the cat as if she was having a hard time believing it.
“Grandmaaaa!” One of the children shrieked.
“Oh shit!” Seth yelled. “OH SHIT!”
Everyone suddenly had outbursts as we all rushed, well I didn’t give a fuck one way or another.
I stepped back into the house after putting out my cigarette but saw what everyone else was seeing.
The screen was filled with confetti falling into the arena, but they showed a close up on Maggie’s face.
My mother cried out before clamping her mouth shut as Raven got her to sit and calm down.
“Well damn…” Seth said as he crossed his arms over his chest. One of the kids walked up to him with a bone in his mouth like an actual dog.
Seth nodded and waved him off as two more ran off to follow him upstairs.
The entire spectacle was aired live as we watched her, and her roommate fall through the sky.
Our mother couldn’t contain her screams when Raven walked her out to the backyard just in time for Maggie to smack the water hard.
Carmilla and Draco, who were busy talking amongst themselves, came to watch while the little ones gathered around the TV.
Himora’s baby kept babbling on without a care in the world, playing with some sort of beady shaker toy in her balled-up fist.
“So this is unexpected,” Vanessa said as she stood beside me. “Maggie turning up at the games…You think it was planned?”
I didn’t bother to respond or ask if she was speaking to me or not. I slowly looked up at the ceiling, feeling the blood rush to my head as I tried to drown out the commentators speaking about a man attacking my sister. My one and only sister in this lifetime.
“Bellamy?” Seth called out cautiously as I walked out. “Hold up–––Bella–Shit.”
I stepped back outside as Raven tried to calm my mother, but her eyes were blood shot red when she glared at me.
“BELLAMY?!” She shrieked as Raven tried to back her up.
“Don’t you listen to her! We’re supposed to wait until we hear back from my brother!”
“Are we turning up? You bringing YN Belly out?” Seth asked excitedly from behind.
“Hold on!” Vanessa let out. “Trevor is supposed to–––”
“GET MAMA’S SHOES! WE ABOUT TO GO UP TO THIS SCHOOL AND GET THIS CHILE!” Raven hollered while placing a small hand on Cynthia’s arm, but my mother kept her distraught red gaze on me for screaming out.
“GO GET YOUR SISTER! NOW!”
I looked up at the bright sky as my body suddenly sucked into the air before landing in mid walk-in front of the stadium.
I saw the dark clouds brewing just over the dome where I could hear cheers and screams from inside.
The booths, and parked cars were filled with people watching, tailgating and enjoying my sister being attacked as I walked directly to the entrance before me.
With a crack of my neck to the side, I reached to pick at my fangs that were drawn while feeling a second one come up directly behind it.
“Aye!”
I looked back to see Seth walking up in a black t-shirt with black shorts, bright yellow wolf eyes and his hair pulled back. Carmilla, Draco, and now Lovely who wasn’t present before were all trailing behind him along with 8 wolves that tiptoed behind Seth.
“You didn’t think you would have all the fun,” Seth complained as he shoved a black ski mask in my hand in an attempt to be funny.
“I hope this is all worth it,” Carmilla said dryly as she walked up with a bored sigh in her long black dress. The high split that came up to her thighs showed the different set of knives she had wrapped around the skin with a lace band. Her cutlery as she calls it for when she cuts up bodies.
“Just focus on the plan and grab her friends. I will get my sister and let the UBI deal with the rest. They’re waiting for us to get them out first.”
“I don’t even know what the losers look like,” Carmilla said with a dull tone.
“Ooo! I remember! The siren, the nymph…the vixen demon…” Lovely said as she began to count out loud.
“What about Namir?” Draco asked. Seth cleared his throat.
“I’ll handle my brother because he’s probably going to shift and once he does…everyone is at risk…”
The eruption from the stadium caught our attention as the crowd cheered. The projection suddenly went up with the transparent screen hovering in the air, showing a woman running through the desert with bare feet.
“Now who the fuck is that?!” Seth croaked with a crack in his voice. Carmilla huffed with an attitude while Lovely stared in awe.
“She’s gorgeous…” Lovely sighed.
“PRINCESS AYIRA IS TAKING THE DRAGON HEAD ON!” The announcer screamed.
“I’m out,” I declared as I started for the stadium.
“Put the mask on YN Belly!” Seth shouted with a laugh. “Aye!” Whistling for the pack’s attention. “Let’s go! Circle around and find a way in! No harm! No teeth unless necessary! We’re grabbing Namir! Our focus is to protect Namir!”
The stadium shook with cheers as I appeared out of thin air in one of the wrapped halls. Shoving my hands into my pockets, I casually began walking as I ducked my head every so often to peek through the openings of the stadium.
Where is my sister? There were still so many big brotherly things I wanted to do like teach her how to fish and be there when we shopped for a home.
I wanted my own cubby space in the back so I could casually walk in without being bothered and be in the nude as I please.
I didn’t want to be with any woman but my sister.
She is the only good left in this world, and they were fighting to taint and turn her.
I didn’t know how to fish, nor do I eat it, and Namir’s teacher’s salary was pathetic in comparison to my bank account.
He wouldn’t be able to get her a dream house, but I can.
There was still so much left I had to do as a big brother.
A year wasn’t enough and as I continued to walk, pacing the level, I froze when I saw the opening that led directly to the main stage.
The confetti falling felt like a fever dream, surreal in that moment of celebration at the downfall of my sister and the rise of another.
That’s when the water fell, breaking the dome above as it came crashing down.
I saw Seth charging through the panicked crowd to reach his brother who lost his mind during his shift to a werewolf.
Letting people squish and squeeze past me, I stayed near the entrance.
My eyes scanned everything and everybody, waiting to see where my sister was.
The panicked crowd was too busy fighting to get out to even noticed that their worst enemy with red eyes was standing amongst them.
I spotted her friends and saw the girl who rode the dragon on the ground with people around her.
I didn’t care about any of these blood baths and bottom feeders in society. WHERE THE FUCK IS MY SISTER?!
“Yoooo hoooo!”
The howling call came from cousin Lovely who hung upside down from a rail, mouth drooling fresh blood as her eyes widened from the natural high of feeding. She swung cheerfully with her hair teasing the heads of screaming fanatics scared at the sight of her.
“Oh! Oh! Don’t be scared of little ol me!” She cried with her hand on her chest, her eyes blacked out as it took up whatever white was left, leaving two pitch black holes in her face for her gaze.
“Her friends, Lovely! Focus on the friends!” I shouted but she ignored me and went on.
“I’m really friendly! Until someone messes with my own and then I get really angry and hungry,” she grinned with a tease of her tongue. Only to shriek like an evil villain from a cartoon. “Your fear of Maggie Grey being a vampire should have been to meeeeee aahhh hahaha!”